Abstract: In its most basic guise, the similarity view of representation says that something represents something else by being similar to it. A photograph represents its subject matter by being similar to it; a statue represents its object by being similar to it; and a painting represents by being similar to what it portrays. In the context of a discussion of modelling, the similarity view asserts that scientific models represent their targets in virtue of being similar to them. In this chapter we introduce different versions of the similarity view, and ask how they deal with the problems and conditions that we have introduced in Chap. 1 . We begin the chapter by discussing how the similarity view deals with the two demarcation problems, then turn to the epistemic representation and the issues of accuracy and style, and finally discuss what sort of objects models have to be in order to enter into the requisite relation with their targets.
Publication Year: 2020
Publication Date: 2020-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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